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EVENTS .....·00 6: Andorra -.,. EDITED BY KE/TH.BUSH g ~ ~ z Q By John Dickinson ANOORRA, ANDORRA. MAR. 1 arc Colomer regained the lead in the 1996-97 World Cup Indoor Trials Series as he nailed a convincing win in the tiny tax-haven principality of Andorra, nestled 'between Spain and France in the Pyrenees Mountains, site of the sixth event of the 10round series. But Colomer's new three-point championship lead could be short-lived, thanks to a glaring organizational snafu that illegally seeded Amos Bilbao in the three-man final at the expense of previ- M ous series leader Doug Lampkin after the pair had tied on points. In a nutshell, following the eightman opening lap, Colomer and Jordi Tarres tied on points, having dropped . 26 marks apiece over six alI-but-impossible sections plus a high jump and ·two races, while Bilbao and Lampkin tied behind the)n on 27. Only three men could progress to the final, and the organizers in Andorra seeded Bilbao (making it three Spaniards in the final) by totaling each rider's scores on the six observed sections alone, rather than following FIM rules that state tied riders must attempt again a previously designated section. In the event of another tie, the riders would go again until a winner is declared. According to the rules, not only should Lampkin and Bilbao have done this to determine who should compete in the final, but also Colomer and Tarres, tied on 26, to determine the starting order for the final, with the best score going last. A furious Lampkin protested when no tie-break runoff ·was forthcoming and the Beta ace had little choice but to protest officially when the correct procedure was not followed. It is expected that an FIM jury will have no option but to declare the outcome void and the Andorra event will ,be deleted from the championship. Spain's Marc Colomer won the controversy-filled Indoor Trials World Cup event held in the tiny principality of Andorra. The event itself, staged in the small, 15OO-seat lee Palace, was declared much too difficult by the riders and offered spectators little in the way of entertainment on the first lap. Even Colomer and Tarres took fives on four of the six sections. In fact, of the eight riders present, tackling a total of 48 sections between them, only one rider recorded a clean on that first lap. The rider was Lampkin and he achieved the miracle on the opening section, which took a maximum from everyone except him and Colomer, who made it through with two dabs. They fared even wor~ on the second section, where all eight fived on the opening impossible step - not much for the crowd to get excited about so far. At least the field got three parts of the way through the next hazard - large steel pipes - before taking the virtually compulsory five. Colomer and Lampkin were the last riders to attempt these, and Colomer just managed to heave his Montesa out for a well-deserved single mark. Lampkin tried to better this with a superhuman clean attempt, but just failed on the final step. He probably could have taken a dab with ease, but risked all on a clean. The sections in Andorra were laid out by Tarres' brother, Francis. All his sections - as in Barcelona - are basically large steel "shapes" which can be arranged to vary the difficulty of the se<;tion. In Andorra they proved just too much. The fourth lap saw former seventime World Champion Tarres star with a one-dab ride, while Bilbao took his chances with a two. Behind them, it was the familiar. tale of maximum points lost by the rest. Section five saw the dynamic Bilbao alone salvage a three while the final observed section again saw Bilbao make it through for three, as did Tarres. The high jump was next, and this saw a totally demoralized Gabriel Reyes and similarly affected Graham Jarvis complete their evening of maximum scores, dropping 35 from a possible total of 35. Tommi Ahvala saved his whitewash by soaring over the high jump bar as, indeed, did Bruno Camozzi on his Gas Gas. These four riders lost maximum scores in the pure riding sections amazing. Bilbao and Colomer then blitzed the high jump before the last man on, Lampkin, brought a gasp as he dragged the back wheel of his Beta through the top two bars, which ultimately brought about the row over the tie breakers. "The high jump was my fault," Lampkin said. "I simply missed the back brake as we use the technique to kick the back wheel over the top bars instead of it trailing through. I've never done that before; I don't intend to miss it again, either." Lampkin then blitzed Colomer in the final two head-to-head races to roar right back into contention as all the other riders lost marks in the races - Tarres two, Colomer three and Bilbao four to set up the aforementioned half-hour brouhaha which probably will result in the round losing its championship status. The three-man final saw two new' sections introduced to take the number in use up to 11, and the second section